Michelle Obama urges men at women’s summit to ‘be better’

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a summit on the “United State of Women,” but Michelle Obama had advice for the men in the audience: Be better.

“Be better at everything. Be better fathers,” she said during a conversation with one-time talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. “Just being good fathers who love your daughters and are providing a solid example of what it means to be a good man in the world. That is the greatest gift that the men in my life gave to me.”

She urged the men who were among the estimated 5,000 people who attended the daylong, White House-organized conference to be part of their family’s lives, to do the dishes and not “babysit” their children.

“Be engaged. Don’t just think going to work and coming home makes you a man,” Mrs. Obama said.

“Be better. Just be better. I could go on, but I’m not. You get the point, fellas,” she said.

For the women in the audience, the first lady tried to reassure them that it’s hard to “have it all,” especially at the same time. She mentioned compromises that she made for her family during her life and career, even with all the help and resources available to her.

“I don’t want young women out there to have the expectation that if they’re not having it all that somehow their failing,” Mrs. Obama said.